The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-12-15
Rites and Rituals Of Hindustanese

In no part of the world at the
present time is the belief in
demonology, or devil-lore, and witch
craft SO widely prevalent as among
the native population of Englands
Eastern Empire, says writer in the
San Francisco Examiner. Through
the length and breadth of Hindustan
worshippers of the devil are to be
found, forming numerous sects whose
doctrines are essentially similar,
whether they inhabit the Coromandel
coast, the Highlands of Central India
or the borders of Afghanistan. Be-
tween these widely divergent points of
the great Indian Peninsula there can
not have been for ages, if there ever
had been much intercommunication
of the people, who are in many in
stances ethnologically different and
speak language entirely foreign to
each other.
The fundamental doctrine of the
devil worshippers' creed, as gathered
by the writer in conversation with
members of the sect in various
parts of Hindustan, is that it is i'm
proper, if not actually blasphemous,
for human beings to offer prayer or
sacrifice to propitiate divinity whose
mercifni and forgiving benignity is IN
conceivably beyond all his other at.
tributes, and who could not, even If
he would, do aught that is inimical
to the present or future happiness,
spiritual or material, of beings created
after his own image and loved with
undying and Unreasonable love with
all the subtlety of thought and illogical
mental cunning incidental to the
oriental intellect, they will expound
in verbose and highly imaginative
language the grounds on which are
based the reasonings that warrant be-
lief in their creed, To the devil, as
the omnopitent incarnation OF evil
they attribute essentials which arr
plausibly advanced to give color tt
the doctrines Of their sect. Shaitan
as named in Hindustan, is, accordi
to his worshippers inordinately egolisti
cal, and they, with the hope OF gain
ling his good favor in their behalf
fatter him by the most elaborate
eeremonials and fervid prayers, con
, Quoted with all the surroundings Incl
dental to Eastern pageantries, religion
/ and otherwise.
The ritual of fdevil-worship, as wei
i as the tenets of the creed, modify con
siderably, according to the varyinl
climatic and geographical
= which obtain from the perpetuaH
! snow-clad Himalayas TO the torri
. regions of Cape Comorin and along t
the equatorial line. The doctrine Q
devil worship is not confined to tn
: low or illiterate classes of the people
1t prevails more or less extensivel
among those oriental intellectuf
I dreamers who read the institutes {
, |, Manu- in the original and discuss al
struse theological and metaphysic;
: theories in Sanscri t. To the mind G
!. the willy Hindoo and the bodil
effeminate, but mentally active TO
lowers of the Prophet, occult teaching
: of the most visionary school have a
tWays had an irresistible fascinatio
and the spread of European civilizatio
? and the Introduction of the Englis
! educational system has increase
rather than diminished the orient'
q fondness for semi-comatose speculatiQ
in the realms of religious thought.
/ Witchcraft also predominates
8 an extraordinary extent among u
e ignorant classes, which means min
s / tenths of the population. and the el
tire social life both of Hindoos an
Nussulmans in the mofussel
t country districts is strongly il
pregnated with the doctrines of dey
+ | worship and belief in witches AL
. witehlore and all the superstition
Il which surround the recognized pr
fession of the black art. NecroIAa
, GERS and adopts in divination d
: | numerous, and their persons are he
, sacred and their supernatural powe
are acknowledged by the people as
they were recognized teachers OF tt
q religion of Brahma or Moliaho e
T pounding the laws of the Koran.